Getting my Gizzard Popped

On my journey to gall bladder surgery I had an ultrasound and last Friday had an MRCP or Magnetic Resonance Cholangiopancreatography. The instructions were to fast-nothing by mouth-for four hours before the 8:30 AM test, so I got up at 3:30 to take my am medication and to worry for a bit. You see, this has been dragging on since September which may not seem like much, but I started a new job-well not a NEW job, but a promotion-last January and taking all this time off is giving me angst. And now having to have surgery and all of the pre-testing time is stressing me.

So I arrived at 7:45, always early as the nuns taught me, starving, and craving coffee, to discover that it was not necessary to fast. As a matter of fact, the first thing I was made to do was drink pineapple juice. If only it had caffeine or valium in it!

The next thing, of course was to disrobe and then robe in a color coded hospital gown-or two as I never know the code for woman size. I discovered that an MRCP is pretty much like any other scan. It’s like being in your own toilet paper tube which is then tossed into a cement mixer. Only this scan had headphones with nice music when the cement mixer was off. And I wasn’t doing breathing exercises, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in and hold it…

I’ll have the results in a day or two or my surgeon will. I have a pre-surgery examination on Wednesday (1/2 day off.) I have a second opinion on Thursday (1/2 day off.) By the time I actually have the surgery I’ll have no time left.

One thing I did discover was a brochure that offered a free program at the hospital to ”Feel calmer before surgery. Use less pain medication. Recover faster.” I think I should call right now.